era consumer protection board auto finance bill. also today, seven small business related measures. more live house coverage when the gavel comes down. next right here on c-span. and to get us to the house, live coverage at the top of the hour, here's a look at some of the primary elections taking place today. o be marked democrat or republican. host: now we go to the hoosier chrissie thompson joining us from the "cincinnati inquirer. " take us to the senate race in indiana. how vulnerable is the joe donnelly consider this fall? guest: i am actually joining you from ohio from the "cincinnati inquirer." i am a native hoosier, so i can talk and little bit about joe donnelly. host: [laughs] yes, talk to us about sherrod brown and the buckeye state. guest: no worries.

relativelywn has a strong position in ohio, especially what may be a blue wave here. in most polls, he is up at least a couple of percentage points, if not more, whatever republican challenger emerges from today. so republicans are really hoping know,hey can say, you sherrod brown says that he is a but thatlass person, is not who he is, and they are hoping that they can show more of his liberal positions to turn him off to the buckeye state. host: who is he most likely going to be facing this fall, talking about the republican primary? guest: the most likely candidate is jim renacci, a congressman from northeast ohio. earliere of trump's

supporters, and trump asked him to get in the race to take on sherrod brown. another person running today, a couple of people, but the other contender, his name is mike gibbons. the interesting thing about mike earlys is he was also an supporter for president trump. he made hundreds of calls for him, raised more than $1 million for him, and actually got in the race to help president trump, but trump backed renacci. host: has governor kasich gotten involved in this contest at all? guest: not really. his campaign operatives are getting but generally tired, some consultants. there are some more moderate republicans or anti-trump

republicans behind him. host: a lot of the national headlines are focused on today's primaries being a test to president trump's influence. how popular is president trump in ohio? guest: he has done reasonably well here compared with other states. he won by eight percentage points here in ohio, which is kind of a lot. there are a lot of working-class democrats who are still saying, you know, give him a chance, and , in the republicans primary here in ohio, we have seen the republicans trying to be as close to him as possible, generally speaking. he is still relatively popular here. what house races will you be focusing on today as he watched the primary results come in? guest: i think the most exciting

one of the 12 district, a central ohio district, and it has a special election in august for the general, because in my district, our congressman, who is a kasich aid -- this is kasich's old district -- pat barry then became a congressman. he is retired. replace him is going to be a sort of a form letter for how some of these country.es go in the there are 18 people running. it is crazy. on the republican side and on the democratic side, a leader who is a mainstream politician and then also a grassroots activists. so those are probably the two contenders on each side, and whoever emerges from at will face off in august and again in november. host: how many house district are democrats looking to put in

play this fall, democrats only with four house seats right now in the state of ohio? guest: there are two or three that they have a real shot at, here in central ohio, and then there is a race down in the cincinnati area. chabat'sman s race. there is a young democrat who is running their and is hoping to take down chabot. chrissie thompson is with the "cincinnati inquirer." minutes. much with we will get to as many of your calls as we can come of it in the meantime, i want to return to the hoosier state. we have maureen, a

correspondent with the "indianapolis star." we have heard about joe donnelly, how vulnerable is the senator according to the polling? guest: he is vulnerable because he is the only statewide elected democrat in indiana, a state that trump won by 19 percentage points, and people think he got lucky when he was elected six years ago, and he benefited from circumstances that were in his favor. they did not think he would have face when he would reelection, but he got lucky again when trump won, because it would be hard for him to be reelected if hillary clinton was president. and yet lucky again with the controversy in the primary on the republican side. host: tell us why it is so competitive. we know there are two members of congress running, but they are not the only ones. guest: right, so congressman rokita and congressman messer, they got into the race first, in

the race early on that very competitive between the two of them and got a little nasty. that left an opening for mike braun, who is a businessman who served in the state legislature, although very briefly, for three self, and he has been funding his race, and he has spent a lot more than the other two have on very professional as that have gotten a lot of attention, so the has made this race between the three of them. host: how do they try to to sing which themselves in this crowded primary? guest: there is not much difference between the three of them on issues. mostly, they have been attacking each other and trying to out- trump each other on the thing that they are each the most trump-like. mike braun, the businessman, he is self funding, arguing that he is the trump-like, this is outsider who is going to shake up washington. luke messer has been arguing that he has the best record as far as supporting trump's agenda

in congress. todd rokita says he has the most trump-like attitude, he is the fighter, the one who is tough enough to beat joe donnelly and to help stop what he calls the witchhunt, the mueller investigation, and otherwise support trump in washington. host: have trump or vice president pence said who they like in this race? guest: they have not. that has been a little contentious, because todd rokita has been endorsed by the two men who ran trump's indiana campaign in 2016, but they made a point that they were endorsing for themselves, not on behalf of the white house or the trunk-pence campaign. when rokita put that on his yard signs, the trump campaign asked him to take us down because they thought it was implying that he had the endorsement of trump and pants, and he did not. luke messer has a lot of ties to

the president. he competed in the congressional district with his brother mike pence's older brother, who is running for luke messer's seat. there are others in the tinfoil who are close to them who are actively supporting luke messer. there are two groups that have been running ads, who have ties to luke messer and the vice president, but vice president pence has not officially endorsed anyone in the race. host: in the meantime, how has senator donnelly been campaigning? an rv, hehas ,urchased a used rv last fall last summer, and has been driving around the state in his rv, campaigning on his own, enjoying what is going on on the republican side, and doing his own thing. he had one at that was running

in the primary . nowhere in the ad did he talk about being a democrat. he talked about republican issues, cutting funding, being for the military, so he is positioning himself as the middle of the road guy, average joe, just working for hoosiers, not one particular party. host: take this around some of the house races around the state. any primaries that you will be focused on particularly tonight? guest: the one that has gotten the most attention with interest is the seat to succeed luke messer in a house district, that he is giving up to run for the sena >> we'll have to leave the last few moments of this interview as the u.s. house is about to gavel in. see the rest of it at c-span.org. our live coverage of the primary results will happen tonight shortly after the polls close on the c-span networks and at c-span.org. u.s. house about to begin legislative work on antitrust issues and the cfpb rule on auto

financing. both around 1:00 p.m. and again at 4:00. live coverage of the house here on c-span. really quick reminder that president trump will be announcing his decision regarding the iran nuclear deal this afternoon. he's expected to make that decision public at 2:00 p.m. eastern. we'll have live coverage when it happens on c-span2. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be -- the speaker: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. loving and grarnse god we give you thanks for giving us another day. help us this day to draw closer you so with your spirit and aware of your presence among us we may all face the tasks of this day. bless the members of the people's house, help them to think clearly, speak confidently and act courageously in the belief that all noble service is based upon patience, truth, and love.